It felt like death would have been better than this when Alex backtracked out of the room. He walked away, just like Kate wanted, and he didn't stop until he reached the little botanical garden at the side of the floor. He plopped down on the bench next to a long line of Laelia orchids and dropped his head in his shaking hands. Unlike a few pregnant women and an old guy suffering from paralysis strapped in a wheelchair, Alex was altogether oblivious to the beauty and smell surrounding him. 

The palms of his hands felt wet against his cheek. He realized they had collected his tears. 

His breath hitched as his mind reeled back to the memory of minutes ago. And he couldn't help but wonder if Kate had felt the same when he had moved her face away from her pleading eyes that night. 

If possible, his regret only increased, and he feared if this anguish would ever stop. Because if it didn't, then it was very much possible that, one day, there would be nothing but only this anguish left in his life. He was scared. Like a lost child - he was scared. It was even more terrifying, the knowledge that perhaps no one would find him. For his world was lost, and he had no other place to go.

As minutes ticked by, he gradually became aware of his surrounding. 

On the other side of the orchids, an expecting couple was talking in a hushed voice to their child. There was no view more serene than this.

Alex could hear the anticipation in their voices, the joy, and the love. It was like another horrid nail to his heart as he realized that he had lost this all. 

Lightning flashed across the sky suddenly, and then there was a booming thunder.

Alex heard the man from the other side of the orchids chuckle and say, "Well, that's Asthel. You never know when the cloud will claim the sky."

The female voice laughed along. "Now, let's get inside, or our little one here will kick the daylight out of me in fear. She's scared of thunders, you know."

"Like mother, like daughter."

As the unseen couple left, with the female voice huffing and puffing, the drizzling began. Other people, too, left in hurry. Some, though, stayed under the shed near the double doors. 

Only Alex stayed rooted to his spot, raising his face to the cold droplets of heaven. He let the rain pour along with his pain.

--

Ellie giggled behind Kate for the fourth time as she pushed the wheelchair along the corridor. Kate rolled her eyes or made a close attempt at it.

"Pushing this damned thing makes me feel like I'm shopping in the supermarket. Only, there's a human being sitting inside the cart," Ellie chirped.

Neil and Victor had gone home now, and it was Ellie's turn to babysit Kate. And she was proving to be quite a very excited babysitter. Now that the life threat was out of Kate's way, Ellie had dedicated herself to all the amusing things in the hospital. 

It was not difficult to find Lara's location in the hospital. The nurse at the counter was helpful with that. While Ellie talked about pushing the wheelchair in the direction of Lara's room as instructed by the nurse, Kate played with the petals of the baby pink roses on her lap. The sky blue slim ribbons binding the bunch of beauties together went with the pink adorably. "This color's a nice choice, Ellie. Did you get these from the florist across the street?"

"Yes, that's the shop. They have got an incredible collection of flowers, you know," Ellie replied happily. "And their business's flourishing, the line of customers was THIS long. They're quite wise opening the shop right before a hospital. Guaranteed success. And Victor kind of chose the color and ribbons and roses, or I was quite intrigued to buy the Dracula Simia Orchids."

"Dracula ah—Orchids?"

"Yeah, damn, it looked like the faces of Count Dracula were pasted on each one of them! Fascinating. I was almost convinced to buy them."

Kate was relieved that Victor didn't allow it to happen. Dracula—whatever Orchids didn't seem like the proper choice of flowers to offer to a four or five-year-old cancer patient. 

When they reached Lara's room, whatever Kate was expecting to see wasn't what she was actually greeted with. 

Lara's frail body lay on the hospital bed, her face looked dried up, and her eyes had sunken awfully inside hollows of what seemed like great suffering. She looked deathly pale, and yet when she looked up at Kate, her eyes beamed as if nothing were wrong. Her spirit was as fresh as a new sunrise. "It's you!" Lara tried squealing, but what came out was a quivering whisper. "They took your hail too."

Kate smiled. "Yes, apparently they did." Her head was still covered in bandages, but one didn't need rocket science to figure out that there was nothing but punctured skin underneath it.

A teddy bear was softly tucked into the kid's one side, and at the other side of the bed, looming figures of an anxious couple sat on a chair and a stool. It was not hard to guess that they were Lara's parents. A good few minutes passed as Lara took it upon herself to introduce them to Kate. She even pointed at the lump covered by a thin blanket on the sofa. "You see, that's my blother, Tinky—"

"It's Tony," Lara's father corrected, looking at Kate and then smiling down at his daughter.

"Yes, that too," Lara dismissed the correction like it didn't matter. "So, you know, Miss Kate, he's magical. The doctol said Tinky has magic stuff inside that long bone in his back, some of which he's going to give me, and my illness will disappeal. Ale those flowels fol me? I love pink!"

Kate remembered that she was still sitting with the roses in her lap like a fool. Ellie helped Kate bend over a bit so that she could hand them over to Lara, who grinned with weary, half-closed eyes. 

It was heart-wrenching, this ordeal that this sweet, little kid who'd just begun her life was having to go through. 

Sometimes, Kate wondered, what was God's point actually? Giving some souls so much difficulty from the very beginning of their lives while others are spoiled rotten with joy and comfort throughout their entire journeys. How does heaven confirm what to give whom? There are people born without limbs and sometimes even without a single ounce of love around, while there are also people born with exceeding wealth and power and solace. How does this system actually work? 

A while later, when Kate and Ellie came out of the room, Lara's mother - whose name was Bella, followed them out. They stopped outside the door in the corridor. "She's deteriorating," Bella explained. "Chemo is apparently not working anymore. The doctors said that a bone marrow transplant is the only option left now," she paused and stopped to sigh softly. "Thankfully, my older son turned out to be the perfect match among all our relatives."

Kate recognized the panic in Bella's voice. It was maternal worry at its worst. Kate knew what it was like to lose a child, the fear was palpable, and Kate could relate to it. "All our prayers are with her. Don't worry. Everything will be alright."

Bella blinked away the glossiness from her eyes and nodded with a smile. 

Ellie decided at that moment to thump on Kate's shoulder. "Or if anything decides to go wrong, call for us. We're now quite experienced in scaring the reaper away. As a fantastic example, we've got a resurrection case here, see - in flesh."

"Resurrection case?" Bella looked befuddled, and Kate pressed her lips into a thin line. 

In her attempt to lighten the atmosphere, Kate feared that Ellie would successfully manage to do the absolute otherwise.

"It's a dramatic story, actually," Kate said. "Let's excuse this topic."

The topic was excused automatically when a hustle broke out at the nurses' counter at the head of the corridor. The speakers blared, declaring code blue. 

The three women stepped back and watched as doctors and nurses scurried in and out of the room right next to Lara's. A while later, they stormed away, wheeling a bed and a patient who was seizing in the scariest of ways. 

"It's a teenager who'd been attempting suicide repeatedly. I overheard the nurses," Bella informed as the commotion diminished. "It's tragic how some people fight to live, tooth and nail, while some are so desperate to end it. It's a revolting joke of fate, and it's so not fair."

Kate's brows pulled together in deep thought and in cringing agreement.

--

Evening came with distant cries of clouds in the distance. The darkness after sunset and shadows of a lazily arriving storm blended together, giving the illusion that it was the late hours of the night. 

Victor peeked out the window before shutting it tight as a cold gust of wind slapped across his face. He grumbled and ran a hand over his face to wipe away the minuscule drops of water that the wind had carried with it. "The earlier drizzle was just a prelude. Here comes the storm now."

Kate ran the spoon in a circle inside the light soup she was given as supper. 

"You need to finish the entire thing," Victor commented, coming back to sit on the stool.

"I don't think I can swallow any more of this," she made a face and looked up only to see Victor glaring at her.

"You said the same thing during lunch," his face was serious. "At this rate, when you walk out of this hospital, you'll so walk out as a living skeleton."

Kate tried to keep a serious face, but in the end, the corner of her lips fell into a smile. "The mental image is fascinating."

Victor raised a brow. "You're going to finish that soup, and that's the end of the story."

Kate sulked, putting a spoonful of the bland liquid in her mouth. It seemed like an effort as she gulped it down, holding her breath in the process. 

"I've decided about something, Kate," Victor said, rolling his thumbs around one another, looking a little unsure. "I want to be more independent with my boutiques."

"Aren't you already independently running the business?" Kate asked between mouthfuls of what tasted like mushy carrots. 

"Yes. But not totally. I mean, I buy items from top designers and fashion companies. The whole Alex case that now makes me want to depend on no other but only the people I can trust," he ruffled his hair, huffing out a breath while searching for proper words that could convey what he felt. "I want to reconstruct my business so that it becomes independent from the very scratch."

"What are you suggesting?" she was finally getting what Victor meant. However, that also meant more questions were developed.

"We're not going to be just selling fashion items. We're also going to produce them."

A thunder stroke somewhere.

Kate stilled. It was an extreme idea. And it was so going to be a great risk. 

"I know," Victor sighed but smiled anyways at Kate's silence. "It sounds frightening."

"It does," Kate nodded.

"But let's take into consideration that most of my employees are already so talented in making handmade items. Remember Kathy from our other branch gifting us knitted sweaters for Christmas; Samantha showing us the lace and beads night-wear she made—"

With an exciting glint passing her eyes, Kate took up from there, "Even our Ellie can sew designs over shawls. The bland batch we got last month? She was the one who kept those shawls turning lively, sewing intricate patterns all over. Sold like antiques!"

Victor cracked up a brilliant smile. "See, that's what I'm talking about. But we will still need more workers. We can even hire interested students in fashion design and sewing. The authenticity of providing handmade stuff can also prove to be quite profitable." Glancing downwards, Victor's smile only broadened. "And there's no more of the horrid soup left, I see."

Kate looked down, and truly, nothing was left in the bowl. An amused chuckle wheezed out her mouth. She didn't even realize it. 

It's genuinely baffling how things can be so remarkably effortless while in the company of some people. 

~

Alex's breaking and you've probably noticed how Kate's mending. And while rewriting, I now notice, that I've drifted far... far away from my first draft. When the hell did this actually happen??? 

Ships are stuck. I know.

But don't worry, the horizon with silver linings and all that - is nearby. 

Don't forget to please Vote; Comment. Fan/Follow me to get notified whenever I update. Share the story. 

Lots of love,

Lara.

P.S. Orchids were everywhere in this chapter. Recently, I'm in love with this flower. They are so amusing.